DAS TELAS PARA AS RUAS: O ENVOLVIMENTO POLÍTICO DE THE HANDMAID’S TALE COM A ATUALIDADE

Abstract

In 2017, Hulu debuted for its subscribers the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale, adapted from the eponymous book by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It depicts an alternate reality where the United States suffered a political coup, becoming a theocratic regime known as Gilead. The spectator follows the story of the character June, going through her life from before the establishment of the new republic, until the present time. The TV show has been quickly acclaimed by both critics and the public for bringing a dystopian narrative full of symbolism and visual elements that somehow dialogue with the current moment of socio-political instability faced by several countries in the world, such as Brazil, Argentina, USA and others. The production has become part of the recent culture of the TV shows, which has developed over the last few years, and has been constantly fueled by new productions and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, among others. This study sought to identify the elements that contributed to the production of The Handmaid's Tale to conquer a prominent place in mass culture today, being even referenced in protests, as happened with V for Vendetta (2005), and most recently Joker (2019).